Since last time we chatted.....

Summer finally came to the Pacific Northwest......and lo and behold,

we discovered our central air is not working!  While the rest of the country

has seen record temps, the northwest has been mild.  And when I say

summer has finally come, I mean temps in the 80's with NO humidity - lovely!

Our family spent the holiday at home - celebrating with friends,

tackling a few home projects and enjoying some fun right in our

own backyard.

Our home has THREE garden arbors - lovely but they needed

a fresh coat of paint in a bad way.  So, yours truly tackled each of them

with a quart of BM Snow White and they look fresh as a daisy!

The puppy posed just for you!

While I was taking photos of the pooch sitting in front of the freshly 

painted arbor/gate, I thought I would take some photos of the outside of

our home.  We have No grass, yes you read that right.  Our home sits

high off the street so the sloped front yard has perennials, trees

and shrubs.  The backyard has a brick patio that runs the length of the house, 

a lovely natural looking fountain, and a terraced yard with plantings.  

We live up in the hills so land is tricky to build on and really in

Portland you just don't get big yards like so much of 

the country enjoys.  The city of Portland has established

an urban growth boundary to prevent urban sprawl and

to encourage citizens to take public transportations, walk or

even bike to places!  In many respects it's great but homes

are built on very small lots.

We love our lot because it is private and relatively large 

compared to others we looked at just over a year ago.

Our side yard has wonderful raised beds.  We are having fun

watching our garden grow and are looking forward to enjoying tomatoes,

peppers, zucchini, corn, pumpkins and blueberries!

In our backyard, we even managed to tuck a trampoline in the corner for the girls!

Can you see it below?

And while we did manage to do lots of work around the house

over the long weekend, we also did some fun things too.

We took the girls up to Mt. Hood to a ski area that has a summer "Alpine Slide" - basically

a 1/2 mile chute down the ski run!  You ride the chair lift up and ride a 

sled down - it was a blast! 

Anyone else feel like summer is flying by?